November 2010 -- Epigenetics-based research tools company Active Motif, Inc. has been awarded a $314,000 Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant from the National Institute for Mental Health.

The Carlsbad, CA-based firm will use the 15-month, Phase 1 grant to develop chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) technology for use with archived clinical specimens, specifically with Formalin-Fixed, Paraffin-Embedded (FFPE) Human Brain Sections. The project is a collaboration with Dr. Moshe Szyf (Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics) and Dr. Gustavo Turecki (Department of Psychiatry) from McGill University (Montreal, QC, Canada

Although FFPE tissue samples are available from a large number of patients with a variety of cancers, diseases and other maladies, performing ChIP on paraffin-embedded samples using current methodologies is extremely difficult. This greatly limits the amount of epigenetic data that can be obtained from the extensive archives of well-characterized FFPE tissue samples. “Developing a Clinical ChIP assay that enables the analysis of changes in Histone post-translational modifications will be a big step along the path to improving the accuracy of diagnosis for patients suffering from clinical depression,” stated Ted DeFrank, President of Active Motif.

About Active Motif

Active Motif, Inc. is dedicated to developing, manufacturing and delivering epigenetics-based research tools to analyze nuclear function. Its customers include life scientists from academic and government institutions; biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies; hospitals and reference laboratories. Active Motif operates globally through its corporate headquarters in Carlsbad, California and European headquarters in Rixensart, Belgium, and a worldwide network of sales and support offices. Active Motif applies a multi-disciplinary approach to create new and modify existing technologies to meet the current and future needs of life science researchers.